Musical Tastes

[GraemeC]

Originally Posted by Twobackjoe

Only if it is a acousticaly superior corner to the one at the outher side of the room!

Just get in the corner and behave...

[bryn]

Originally Posted by Twobackjoe

Only if it is a acousticaly superior corner to the one at the outher side of the room!

It will be outdoors. Evanescence is being blared from a small, roundish, yellow portable cd player, barely audible over the ferocious wind, plague of locusts and complimentary laughing farmer choir.

[Twojoe]

Originally Posted by bryn

It will be outdoors. Evanescence is being blared from a small, roundish, yellow portable cd player, barely audible over the ferocious wind, plague of locusts and complimentary laughing farmer choir.

T in The Park!

Originally Posted by Swingin' Ryan

I don't doubt that for a second, I'm just saying I personally don't find electronics as enjoyable as the real instruments. I'm more disputing Stripey's idea that the use of real instruments is somehow artistically sub-par to electronic instruments.

I think he's perhaps overstated a point(I cant be bothered reading back), maybe in a grumpy mood at the time... because one of his favourite tracks features flute.

He did use Neotropic as an example, do demonstrate what he means... I think it was a fine example.

Also, its very hard to tell what is a real instrument and what is software on recordings these days anyway.

[soundian]

Originally Posted by bryn

Whilst I agree with this, I'd also suggest that skill allows said people to voice themselves in multiple ways. You could have all the talent in the world but without some degree of skill, nobody is going to know about it.

Skill and knowledge are in perfect concordance with natural talent, contrary to the beliefs of many people who see skill somehow as a dampener on creativity / enjoy dismissing 'elitist' approaches etc.

You could have all the skill in the world, but without some degree of talent...

[soundian]

Originally Posted by bryn

In terms of rock and jazz, I think a rough edge is cool, I sometimes find albums like Blood Sugar Sex Majik, Metallica's Black Album pretty horrible for their perfection. The Kerrang-type, pop-metal production ideal is repulsive.

However, a decent set of speakers highlight the flaws in my own production and gives me a greater appreciation of well-produced music. I can sit back and really appreciate even top forty music; I'm interested in how the music is put together.

If you need a good set of speakers to appreciate it, then it can't be the music you're appreciating.

[Twojoe]

Originally Posted by soundian

You could have all the skill in the world, but without some degree of talent...

Far too many get them confused...

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Swingin' Ryan

With synth programming and such like, surely you are just, at best, manipulating pre-recorded sounds. With something like an acoustic guitar, you are creating them at the source.

Nah, samplers and wavetable based synths do use prerecorded sounds, which you can record yourself in the first place. Subtractive, FM and modelling synths are very much about creating the original sound from absolutely basic components generated by oscillators, for example you can make a huge range of different sounds starting with simply a pair of pulse waves. Some synths do use sampled waveforms, but these are generally only 1 cycle. I don't see much difference between a tuned digital oscillator and a tuned "physical" analogue oscillator such as a guitar string.

Originally Posted by Swingin' Ryan

I like quite a lot of electronic based music, but I always think there's something slightly soulless about sounds that aren't being generated by the source instrument. I'd rather hear a grand-piano than some kind of synth-generated sample of one. I think over-reliance on electronic production and musicianship is at the very core of the 'Teletubby' musical culture you speak about. A culture where we homogenize plastic, electronic intepretations of an instrument than to hear the real thing.

Bob Dylan with an acoustic guitar and a microphone communicates more to me than anything a man with a computer could ever generate. If that makes me an inadequate conformist then so be it.

Synths in electronic music generally aren't about trying to imitate existing instruments. The great thing about them is being able to create new timbres. A lot of people, if they want a guitar or piano sound or any other "real" instrument will just simply play and record a real one to use in the composition.
The term "real" is a little incongruous anyway, since the software synths I use are as real as any piano or guitar, only without a physical manifestation. They still use a physical interface to play them, i.e midi keyboard and they create real sound.

[HairyScaryMark]

I do slightly object to music which never was 'performed' at any stage, yet still manages to be on a recording. Pre-programmed stuff is potentially a good idea for a backing track so a musician can advance a skill such as improvisation but I don't value pre-programming for music performance (generally speaking). I regularly use computer software for practicing music (band in a box) and also some software synths, recording and score writing software.

There is nothing wrong with digital synths. They are just as much a valid instrument as anything else and one of the most exciting, in my opinion. Providing they are played with a keyboard (or a guitar?), they remain a real instrument. There is a huge difference between the top of the range pro keyboards, available today and what was available 10 years a go.

As for the thing about a Grand Piano verses Synthesised one. I think you will find that to get a decent grand piano you are going to have to fork out many £10,000's or even £100,000's for the very best concert grands. However companies such as Roland do some extremely realistic digital pianos starting at around £600. Also far more practical in a band situation as they can be amplified without use of microphones and also can be played through headphones for home practice. You have to pay many times as much money for a decent acoustic piano vs great digital piano. Anyway, that is highly off thread now.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by HairyScaryMark

I do slightly object to music which never was 'performed' at any stage, yet still manages to be on a recording.

Why? This is another point that irritates me, the notion that some sort of "performance" has to be involved for music to be valid.